Featured as part of our Cooks and their Books series.
Perhaps the most popular of all Japanese dishes among Western people, good tempura should be crisp, light, the batter a mere wisp that covers the food. It should never be the heavy coating found on traditional English-style fried fish (as in ‘fish and chips’). A Japanese chef told me that the secret is to have both food and batter very cold and that the batter must be freshly made and not allowed to stand for too long. Tempura is best served the moment it is ready, so cooking at the table in an electric frying pan or deep-fryer is particularly suitable.